blood of the raven
by timidwolfhazel
Summary: meet clarity as she trys to find out who she really is. is she pure of blood or is she a black blood raven. the story speaks for itself. please just read and review.
1. the begining

Prologue

Today was the day. All of the ravens were waiting patiently, today would be the day that the new heir to throne would hatch. Oh what a wonderful day. Their red pupiless eyes watched as the captain of the black raven flew onto the burnt tree.

"my fellow ravens. It is time, the egg is about to hatch. We shall go now"

Taking flight the ravens followed there captain closely. They followed him up the misty mountains, the safest place to have a child. They landed in a fir tree. Eye glued to the only egg laid that year. The only egg that would be knew heir to the throne. The egg gave a little lurch.

"Come on my child. It is time for you to meet your destiny"

One two and three. The egg gave way and a brown revenllet popped out. She had silky feathers, and a small beak.

The queen looked down at her little bundle of feathers and said

"Come on now. Lets see those red eyes of yours"

The little raven left up her head, revealing something they all hated. Blue eyes. I a bad omen for the black ravens.

"she is pure of blood. I gave birth to a pure raven. Oh I must go and give my self to be eaten. This a mothers worst nightmare. Pure of blood. But that is impossible"

the captain raven walked over to the little raven. Oh it was true. This raven was pure of blood. her eyes were sky blue almost silver in a way. Picking up this raven he set off. Flying to one place in particulaur.

"you little one have brought great shame to your mother. Now she must go die and now I must be the new king. You little female I must go kill. For now we are not safe you do not die."

"give her to me. Pyro you retched fowl smelling crow. Give me the raven child."

Pyro watched as the warrior came to get the purest, this warriors name was kimon. An male who worked for topaz.

He was coming right to wards him. Sword out and every thing. Pyro had no weapon, he left at his den. He just thought this would be a quick kill. Dropping the little female he turned and fled.

"Grab her spirit. Grab her"

a dark grey female raven dropped d own and grabbed the little female.

" Spirit why was he trying to kill one of his own."

Looking down at this little one she could not help but smile. She was so sweet, so cute, and fast asleep in her claws.

" it could be that she has pure of blood"


	2. clarity

Clarity was elegant in the sky's, her wings almost part of the wind. Her mind only to flying and holding the sword perfectly in her claws. Rolling around, swinging, tipping, and sliding in the sky. The clouds following right behind her, dusting her brown feather ever so lightly. Soon she will be a full warrior, which does not happen a lot for females. Taking another barrel roll she cawed out loud

Your wings are soft whispered the wind as it ruffled her tail feather.

"Thank you for the compliment" cawed clarity as she flew upside down and watched a loose feather of her get picked up by the wind.

"And that is gift"

The wind and her seemed to be friends even though she knew it was not really alive. She liked to talk to it though since no one else will really talk to her because of her origins.

"You do know that the wind is not real"

Turning her gaze around she stared right in the eyes of another fellow raven. This raven was torch son of desire and gale. One of the fastest ravens and newest warriors.

"Yes I think I know that. It just seems at time that the wind is talking and we just know what each other is about to do. Like when I am about to fly upside down the wind shifts so it is pushing me up. And when the wind is about to change direction a move my wings to follow."

His eyes war right on her as if he had an idea what she was talking about.

"A lot of ravens have that. Were they think they are communicating to the wind but in truth they are not"

" Are you saying I am acting babyish"?

"You didn't let me finish. I was going to say that in truth they are really talking to spirits of ancestors or just spirits riding in the wind. And these spirits can also change the appearance or direction of the wind. It is a privilege to have this power or skill. I have the power or skills to see the past or present some were else in fire. Why do you think they call me torch?"

She cawed in delight. So some raven have powers or skills compared to what you want to call them.

" So what is my skill called?"

" Your skill is called wind listening or wind speaking. Compared to what you do. If you can speak on the wind and allow the spirits to bring the message to someone else then you have wind speaking, but if you can just listen then will you get it right"

She gave a slight nod then turned around and dived down. Fanning her wings out at the last minute allowing herself to fly into a tree. Walking on her two legs she made her way right to the edge of the tree and looked down watching for the slightest movement of something that could be her lunch. Her eyes searching over and over again. Hearing a rustle in the leaves she watched as three other ravens about her age came bustling out of a fern tree sparring against one another. Their swords making a Klink clang noise. Swooping down she flew right past them taunting them to follow. They were soon following her. Swerving past trees, dodging the occasional branch. It was fun and it was a great way to practice there flying skills. Finally stopping on a oak tree to rest she waited for the other three to land.

"Whoa you are a great flyer clarity," said the youngest columbine

"Yeah I think I have at least two branches stuck in my wings," said the only female of the group aspen

" I could have been good if only those branches were not there" said thistle the oldest and most annoying of the group.

She gave a slight nod before taking off again scouting for food this time. She saw little rustle in the ferns on the ground. Her one blue eye watching very carefully. Then she saw them two mice, hoping to get some seeds in their bellies. Swooping down at an extreme speed she grabbed both mice in her two claws. Crushing them to death. Bringing them over to a log she tore a piece of meat of one and started to eat. Once she was finished one she did not feel as hungry for the second. She knew the law. If you catch more then one you must eat it all or share. You cannot just throw it away. Taking off again she knew whom she was going to give the other mice to.

There it was. The cliff. Dropping down she watched spirit clean her newly hatched ravenletts.

"Spirit?"

This dark grey raven turned her gaze and smiled

"Clarity there you are. Is that mouse for me?"

As if to answer her clarity flung the mouse over to her. It was amazing how her best friend spirit finally found someone she loved and had children with. Spirits brother kimon was a amazing warrior and loved his sister dearest and really liked the mate she chooses. As if right on cue there he was. Kimon himself flying to meet his sister.

"Spirit and clarity", his eyes were right on her. He was the only raven who actually thought of her good. He was there when she was almost killed by her own kind, " it time that we go to the old tree, it is time to meet some of our new warriors"

New warriors. Would one of them be her, would she finally become a new warrior? As if kimon could read her mind he said

"Clarity you will have to wait to become a warrior. You have not been on much missions yet."

" Who are we going to praise for this higher post?" said spirit as she put some leaves over her babies so they could blend in with the surroundings.

"It should be amyth daughter of ragweed and willow, fox son of maylee and owl, and garnet daughter of onyx."

Clarity was happy for them all. They deserved this more then anyone else. She new they would be honorable when they fought.

She followed closely after spirit and kimon. She could see that more and more ravens were making their way to the old tree. She saw the three ravens that she was flying with earlier. She watched as torch flew very fast, of course he would be he loved amyth, and wanted to be there when she became a warrior. She dropped down right beside the other ravens, right beside her best friend torch and the three other ravens.

" Amyth is finally going to be a warrior. Now it is just a matter of time before we can actually be mates"

Clarity new that a raven cannot mate until they are said to have enough honor to. Only topaz the leader of the ravens can tell you when, or one of her advisers can. While she was thinking this she saw topaz herself walk on to the speakers limb.

" My raven children. We are here today to praise these three ravens into our family."

All of the ravens cawed their heart out for these ravens

" These ravens have enough honor to become…………"

She blanked out at the word honor. Maybe that is why her family tried to kill her, maybe because she had not enough honor. Maybe she will never be a warrior because of her black blood. Maybe she was meant to die that day.

"And now that we have new warriors it is now time to congratulate them"

Whoa how long has it been. She should go congratulate amyth. Walking a few feet she walked over to torch and amyth. Who were busy rubbing their beaks against one another?

" Congrats amyth. Love the new sword."

"Thank you clarity. Your turn will come soon"

She turned around and walked away. She could see that topaz was talking to her best warrior kimon. They were both looking right at her, eye seemed cold to her. Maybe she was right; maybe she would never become a warrior. Kimon walked right over to her.

" Topaz saw that blank look on your face clarity."

" I am sorry. I just lost myself over there"

" She knows that, she knew what you were thinking clarity. It is her gift to, and she thought it is time that you get another mission. It has been long time."

" But last time I screwed up badly. I mean for me tandra was almost killed"

" I know but it was your first mission. This time though topaz had many ravens telling her of a outsider bird in the immense. One likes you, we think. Some say it looks like a crow, and other say a small raven. We would like you to scout for him. Get him off our property or if he says he knows us then bring him here. Or her"

Putting her feathers to her head she gave a salute before she took off. This would be her second mission and she had to do great. She had to prove herself to the other ravens. She had to show them that she belonged here even if her blood ran black.


	3. dark outsider

It was almost dark and she still did not have sign of this outsider. It has been two days and her mission time will soon be up. Her wings were aching form all of this flying, and yet she did not stop. This was her second mission and it had to be her best. Flapping soaring over and over again. Circling around and round, was this her tenth time patrolling the perimeter of the grounds or was it still her first. She lost count, she was so tired. A big black thing flew right past her face, taking a few feathers with it. Looking up she saw him, the intruder. His eyes were thundering into hers. His eyes looking dangerous, his weapon so big and his claws so sharp. He looked aggressive, she knew that she would not be able to beat him, but maybe she could still lead him away from here. His big beak opened up and she heard a voice that had an edge of danger in it yet she could also detect a young sweet voice.

"So they send a new warrior for me. Ha they have no idea what I am capable of"

He seemed to be laughing at her with his eyes, he was so cruel. She hated him right a way. Grabbing her sword she flew right at him, ready to fight. Trying to catch him off guard as he was still laughing she took a swipe with her sword. She hated the sight of blood so her eyes closed as her sword came closer and closer. Clang, he saw her all along, he was waiting for her, and he knew she was coming.

"Never close your eyes when you are fighting youngling, if you do then you may be the one to die"

His sword came crashing right close to her. So close, she forgot her training and dropped her sword. She turned around and fled, she did not want to die. She could tell he was right behind her, she could hear the beating of his wings. So close. Then she felt it, his claws sinking into her back. She felt the blood drip down her brown feathers. Her black blood, was now tinting her feathers, making little black streaks. His eyes were bearing into hers. She saw her life pass her by. Finally screaming at the top of her lungs she said

"Please don't kill me, please just leave me alone. I had no life. I am no warrior"

His grasped loosen, he let go of her. Did he let her go because she asked him? No that is ever the reason why; there must be another reason why? Lifting up her head that was when she realized that she could not fly. As she watched the trees wiz by a she plummeted to the ground, she then knew that she was going to die from something totally different. The ground. Why did she take this mission? She could of just stayed home and let torch take it. Wait no then that would mean that torch would be the one to die. She felt I slight pain in her back. She saw two wings lifting her up and a voice say

" Flap your wings with me missy."

She knew that voice, it was the trespasser. He was saving her. She flapped her wings, gaining control once more. At this point he let go, her wings were working fine now. Landing down in a tree she turned around to inspect her wounds. The intruder flew own and landed on a branch higher up. His eyes were staring at her with interest. His eyes were annoying her.

"What do you want?"

She said as she stared up at this big shadowy figure. That was when she actually got a good look of him. He was black like a crow but big like raven. His beak was small like a crow, and his eyes were amber, one of the colors a raven has. He was big and muscular and his armor was of a different king and yet his sword was that of a raven kind.

" So what are you looking at"?

He gave a little smirk, his beak shiny from this. His eyes laughing at her, his feathers blowing in the wind.

"May I ask what a little girly like you is doing here in warrior clothes"

" For your information we have seven female warriors. And I was supposed to come find you and rid you out of our premises. Now may I ask why you let me go over there and saved me?"

He flapped down right beside her, his eyes searching her over and over again. Almost like he was inspecting her out. She looked away, he was handsome very handsome, but she could never fall for a criminal.

" Because young miss you are a girl. If I killed you over there then I would be killing your ancestors yet to come. Your children, your grandchildren, and some greats to come. Not only will I be killing your life but the life of many more. And young miss as you said you are just a young raven. Have not seen much life yet. And the reason why I saved you is because I felt like it"

She could tell the last bit was a lie. She turned around and stared at her damaged feathers and chest. They were deep and there will be scars there for the rest of her life, but why did she care. She did not care about her appearance like aspen did. She stared at it long enough to realize that her blood was red, not black like her parents.

" I have red blood."

She could here laughing in the background. It was coming from him.

"What you never seen your blood before"

"No I didn't, but I was scared it might be bl…"

How could she tell him that she was a black blood raven? He would kill her anyways. He would not care if she were a lady or not.

" What was that, did you say you thought it was black? Did you say that it might have been black"?

His eyes were serious as he stared right at her. His amber eyes now brown, from the surprise she was sending to him.

"No I was going to say I thought it was blank white"

"Blank white. No bird has the blood of blank white. You wouldn't have it"

She closed her eyes and pinned her beak underneath her wing. She sat there for a few minutes waiting to see if he would say anything else.

"So missy…"

"Clarity. My name is clarity"

"Ahh well then pureness, are you going lead me out of your territory or bring me to your family"

" In the morning I will decide, so don't leave. If you do I will track you down"

Taking a deep breath she allowed the darkness of sleep take her over. She was so tired.

He watched her sleep soundly, a smile planted on his beak. It would be nice to get to know her better; yeah it would be really nice to get to know her better.

Ok peoples please review; I need help in choosing the right mate or lover for clarity. Should it be kimon, torch, or this new raven/crow? I really need to know.


	4. legendary

He flapped closely behind her, soon he will be home. He would be able to meet his father, his old mentor, and his grandmother. And he may just meet her parents. He may talk to them. Ask them about her. He could not help but remember last night, this very pretty raven female captured, ok so maybe it was the other way around. Maybe he really captured her, tried to kill her, and then save her. He could just turn the tables around right now. He could kill her right now if he wanted. But no he wouldn't. he needed her, he wasn't quite sure qwhat for yet, but he knew he needed her. he saw the change in her wings as she came up right beside him. oh how beautiful she was, her blue, no wait silvery blue eyes staring straight ahead, then he heard it. Her sweet caressing voice.

" we should be there soon"

" yes my pureness soon we will be there. And I will meet your family of ravens"

yes and then they will know that he was back, he would get the praise of a amazing warrior and then she will have to fall madly in love with him, because who couldn't love him, nightshade the legendary warrior. They will all praise him, especially his old mentor kimon, and his grandmother topaz. Oh yes he will get a large welcoming. There it is the old tree.

" will here she comes, and she brought the intruder, wait is it yes it is. Its nightshade. He's back"

kimon could not help but give a warm smile. His first apprentice, the legendary warrior nightshade was back from the dead. He was alive

" so he is. Topaz you must be very happy to see your grandson."

There feet grazed the tree branch before they truly landed. She gave a slight bow to the her lordness.

" oh nightshade it is wonderful to see you again, we thought you perished in the last battle"

her eyes whent wide, she turned around to face her attacker. He was nightshade, the legend. The hero of all of the stories, the warrior of all warriors. He was even better then kimon.

" no grandmother, but I did lose my flight for a few months, but I got help from my father the crow"

"oh yeah how is your father. I have not heard from him in days"

"he is doing fine"

"good, good. We should have a meeting to welcome you back into our family nightshade"

she turned right around and walked over to kimon.

" kimon get all of the ravens together and bring them over here. Clarity go wash up you are a mess, nightshade we would really like it if you got washed up as well"

"yes of course"

"clarity?"

how could he do this to her, she found him and yet he was getting all of the praise.

"clarity are you listening to ……………"

"yes milady I heard you"

she was back from getting cleaned up, and now she was with all of the other ravens at the old tree. Her feathers were gleaming, her beak was shining, and her talons were as sharp as ever. So sharp that they could kill his warriorness with one swipe and no one would no it was her. she watched with a scowl on her face as nightshade got his new sword for coming back to the family. She should of gotten that sword, she should be the one up there, she should be a warrior. But no she was still a ravenlett with brown feathers instead of black.

" you must feel so giddy with delight" she could almost not here what torch was saying to her

"why is that? I am not the one up there"

" will yeah, but with out you we may never see him again"

he stopped talking as he saw him, nightshade walk right over to them.

"not quite. I have been here many times, I know the way of by heart. I did not need her help to come here"

" of course, I did not mean what I said"

"and you clarity, it is time for you and I to go train"

hatred in her eyes, scowl on her face, and anger in her voice

" I will never train with you"

oh how much he would like to kiss that scowl of her face. Oh how much fun it would be to tease her, to make her want him so much she breaths his name, she dreams about him at night, she whants him to be her mate. One way or another that will happen. She will love him so much.

"Yes you will train with him. Topaz made him your new mentor"

Kimon walked up right behind him. Breaking the trance that nightshade was in. kimon saw the look on his face. The look that he saw many times on other ravens when they wanted something or someone so much.

He was her new mentor. No oh no this is bad. She got his warriorness for a mentor, which means if anything goes wrong it would be her fault.

"well now how wonderful this must be for you. You finally have yourself a mentor. Maybe we should go tell your mom and father this great news"

those two words hit her like a ton of bricks. Mom, father. Did she evern know what they looked like. Did she even know were they were.

"it would be better if we didn't tell them"

"and why is that?"

"we can not really tell them if they are not alive"

She had no parents, she was so venerable. She was so young to be without parents. His thoughts of seducing her went blank, how could he do something to someone who has so much hardship in her life. oh yeah he was still going to make her love him, but only on her own time.

"tomorrow we will start the training. I would like to see you in the flower meadow. Bring your sword."


	5. training for her pureness

Was the first day of her training, and she hated it before she even got there. Her new mentor was al ready criticizing her flying, before she even was in the sky. He was telling her to wash up when she was wasn't even dirty, and now he was staying quite through the whole fly there, which she hated. She would just wish that he would at least tell her something. She hated quite more then his bickering. He angled his wings and flew right, away from the wind and towards the meadow. He landed perfectly on the ground and waited patently for her to land right beside him.

" Now we will learn how to balance on one leg"

She dropped her sword down beside her and stared into the eyes of nightshade her mentor, and a legend.

"Shouldn't we practice our sparring in the air"?

He gave a sigh of stupid ness and shook his head.

"Don't you know nothing, lets say you get attacked and can no longer fly for the rest of the battle. Will then what are you going to do?"

She thought about it hard enough but couldn't get anything

" You would die?"

"No, you will fight on the ground, and you need one of your legs to hold your sword, so first before that you must have balance on one of your legs, if you do not then, and only then you will die. Now do as I say and left up one of your legs"

She inched her left leg up and stayed like that for a few minutes

" I see you wobbling, I can see your sweat pouring. Clarity this shouldn't be hard. It should be as easy as walking, as cawing, as eating your first mouse now stand still and stay strong"

Oh god how much she wanted to pick his eyes, his beautiful amber eyes, and his long polished grey beak. She felt a whack over her head. She tripped and fell from the impact of the whack.

" Your pureness keep your mind on your target. No day dreaming, and like I said stay strong do not move and please get off of the ground and try again."

Oh yeah she hated him. She left up her leg once more and stayed there.

"Come on your pureness, stay focused"

Her leg was wobbling, and sweat was dripping down her beak

"Clarity, my name is clarity not your pureness our pure"

" Oh so her pureness does not like me calling her your pureness"

His face was right up in hers, which of course made her loose her balance once more.

" Lets make a deal if you can keep your balance for at least five minutes then I will stop calling you your pureness. But if you can not then I will call you whatever I want"

"And if I can then I can call you what ever I want"

" Ok I accept and you?"

She accepted the challenge, she would stay there for more then five minutes and then she would be able to call him what ever she wanted.

She left up on of her legs and smiled at him. She gave him one of her most dangerous smiles. Her eyes little pearls in her sockets. Then she saw him. He flew right at her, coming right at her he swerved at the last minute. His wing barley missed her. The wind that came after knocked her down.

"You accepted and now I can call you your pureness."

She felt the anger boil, and then it snapped. She lunged at him. Her talons straight out. He saw her, he sidestepped. She landed face first, but she wasn't over. She had so much more fight in her.

Torch was waiting patiently. He was waiting for his good friend to finish her training. The legendary warrior nightshade was training clarity. She should feel superior but instead she was mad beyond believe. He danced in place as he saw two black shadows appear over the trees. He knew it was they. They were getting closer and closer still. It was until she was three trees away the he could tell she got in a fight. Her wings were all cut up, she had a scratch on her beak, and she lost one tail feather. He could not help but laugh at her. The first day and she was all ready fighting with her mentor. He walked right over to her when she landed.

"What happened to you?"

"Training"

"Oh and how did it go?"

"Good I gue…"

Her speech fell short as she saw her friend kimon fly in. he was worse then she was. His wings were all mangled; his face was all cut up. He was bleeding every were.

"Kimon what happened."

Topaz was eager to know why he looked the way he did.

" The black blood ravens. They have a new king. They attacked me when I was patrolling. They told me that there king pyro does not like intruders"

Pyro was king.

Ok the end of part one. Part two will be called banishment.

Please review.


	6. life changing decision

Part 2

Banishment

Many days have passed. Kimon was in intensive care; her mentor was sitting by his side. He never left his side. When nightshade was young kimon was his mentor, so there was no wonder that they had friendly relationship. Kimon was a good friend of clarity's, such a good friend that whenever he got hurt before she thought some of it was her fault. Now more then ever, the raven who attacker him was one of her own kind. A black blood raven. She felt miserable, she kimon, and kimons sister spirit were the only ones who knew of her origin. Of course topaz knew as will but she found out by mistake. She felt sick to the stomach. She hated the sight that kimon was at. She opened her eyes to stair at the cherry colored sky. Her thoughts drifted to her mother. Her thoughts drifted to why she let her go? why she hated her?, and most importantly who she was? She needed to know the answers of these questions so much that she had a plan to find them out. She would seek out her mother or some one who knew her mother. The only way to do this would be to cross into the black blood ravens territory that was now UN heard of. Topaz told no one to set a wing in the territory, it was forbidden now, after what happened to kimon she did not want any on else have the same fate. But that would not stop clarity, she needed to know her past, she heard stories from spirit what happened the day she hatched but she had to know from her mother. She stared at the sky a little longer, she had to think of a plan. She knew she was going to leave soon, maybe today. Finally closing her eys she let out a sigh. She layed there with her eyes closed for some time. So long that at one point she was more then sure the wind speaked to her.

" _cla……clarityyyyyyyy……go..oo……go find …………..heee…r……go find yoooooooo….ur mother……..go now……..secrets need ………to……….beeeeeeee…….told……..go……..now………..beeeeeefore…….y..your……fr..friends…..perish"_

she opened her eyes, this could not be happening. She talked to the wind many times but the wind never spoke back. She felt her legs tremble when she recalled what torch said before. She had wind listening. A power that allowed her to listen to words across the wind. The thought of torch made her turn around and fly off. She had to tell him her plans. She ahd to tell him were she was going. She spotted him by the warriors tree.

"torch, torch. I need to tell you something"

"what is it clarity?"

"torch I need to figure something out. I need to go now. I do not know when I will be back but I need to go"

"clarity I can't allow this. You are going to go in black blood raven territories. I am at higher rank then you know. When I say you cant then you can not"

"please torch you must under stand I need to go"

" if you go I must tell someone about your leave"

"then tell, but not tell I am some time away"

" if you go they will exile you"

" ive been exiled once before I can handle it"

he did not say anything more he just stared at her and pressed his beak against her face. He gave her a quick rub then stared into her eyes.

"if I can not stop you then I bid you farewell. Go now before I change my mind"

she gave a slight bow to him. she let out her wings and took off. When she was a distance away she tunred around and stared down. she could still see torch. He was staring at her. his eyes blurry with pain. She knew why, this may be the last time he ever be able to see her again. Even if she came out alive she may not be able to come back. She gave a great big caw and turned and flew back to her destination.

Torch heard the caw. He would miss her caw, he would miss her. he heard a rustle behind him. he saw fox walk out of the hollow with amyth right behind him. he stared at the sky for a little longer, he saw a black shadow coming right back to him. was it clarity. Did she decide against going. If she did then she made a great decision. Clarity came closer, and closer. So close that he could tell that it was not clarity but her mentor nightshade. Helanded gracefully right beside him.

"nightshade what are you doing here?"

"I have not been training clarity a lot lately. I am getting my sword so we can spar today"

"um shouldn't you give her some grieving time. I mean she gave you some time"

"yes I know but this will get her head of kimono, if she is busy then she will stop remembering about him that way"

"yes will you see she went out for a quick fly"

"and you did not stop her. you heard topaz she doesn't want anyone to go out flying until they learn more about. And anyways I will wait for her"

"yes but she may not be back for another hour or so"

"then I will wait for that long"

"you could or you know you could forget about her"

he was staring at him for some time. His beaty dark blue eyes staring at him. he was searching in him for something. He was making torch feel unfaithful. He was lying to the legendary warrior.

"you the best friend of clarity will never forget about her. you know something. She told you something that she did not whant any one else to know. Were is she?"

"um I don't know"

"is that your best shot"

"yes its all I have"

"were is she torch" he could hear fox right behind him. amyth was standing with her mouth agaped

"ummmmmmm"

the sun was warm against her feathers. It was a whole day now form when she left. She was almost clear from the topaz raven territory. See saw the trees ending, the river were the new territory began. It was such anice day. Such a wonderful day. She landed on a tree limb and sta there a few. She just stared at the blue skys for a little longer. She was growing older by every single day. He brown feather wer now making way for some black. Her bluish silver eyes were looking more and more silevr every single day. She just sat there for a few minutes staring out when she felt and saw a big black shadow fly right by her. shooting up from the brushed down on the gorund. He found her. her mentor was staring down at her.

"you little crow. You know what topaz said. First of all we are not allowed to go in black blood raven territory. Second of all you are not allowed to go flying by yourself. And third of all….."

he was angry so angry. She was scared of him right now.

"I am going with you"

"hey don't forget about us"

she saw three other ravens land right beside him. it was torch, fox, and amyth.

"we are not leaving you to die in the grasp of the black blood ravens claws." She saw the smile on torchs face. He was disobeying topazes words as will. She knew it was in him to be a little bit mischievous at times.

"so when do we leave?"

fox sked every one around him.

as if to answer him they all took off. They took off to were the river lied.

They were flying for some time now. There wings were tiring by now. But they would not stop. They had to go past the river. They were almost to the river. It would be a days fly before they actually get to black blood rvanes territory. The river is the boundry to the crows land. A place were crows live freely. They and ravens were good friends. They were so close, so close….

"oh no. look smoke. Its coming form across the river"

they had no idea what it was but they did no it meant danger. They flapped faster then ever. They wer so keen at getting to the sit eof the smoke that they did not notice they crossed the river. The smoke was so close also the smell of decaying bodies. They wer untop- of the smoke when they all gasped in horror. There on the trees and ground were the bodies of dead crows. Some were laying on branches, there hearts or throats cut open. Blood dripping down. there was so much red it was disgusting. It was just like a river of blood. the smell was overwhelming. She saw amyth right beside her. tears were trickling from her purple eyes.

"who could do such a thing?"

she could not answer for she was staring at something. There was something black moving on the gorund. It was a crow. A young crow, a lot of young crows were around. They got out in time, she also saw a few aldult crows, they wer alive but not undamaged. She flew down to land beside one in particular. She looked young and she was crying.

"young miss I am sorry this happened to your family but I need to know what happened. How did this come to be?"

nightshade was amazed at how nice she was at asking about what happened.

"it was the ravens"

"what ravens miss?"

"not your kind but the black blood kind"

her heart sank. She never knew. That was her kind.


	7. a sad day

It was a long day, and this crow that they now know her name is sawdy. She brought her into the nursing hallow. The place was all of the young and old crows went to get away from the battle. Even though this place was filled with living crows it was quite obvious that this place also had a battle within it. Maybe it was the wood shavings every were, or the claw marks in the wall. Or maybe the feathers and bodies of six crows and one dead raven. The crows all dead were young. They were mostly just hatched; except for one who was an adult who she was more then sure killed the raven. Sawdy said they could stay here for the night. They accepted her offer quickly, not because they were tired and seeking a place but because they needed to help them in a way. Even if it was with cleaning up the bodies.

"Auntie who is this?"

Clarity's eyes gazed over to another crow. She was young very young. She was about one month younger then clarity. She was staring at them with hatred in her eyes, as if she did not trust them. As if she thought that they did this to her family of crows. She was acting strong but clarity could tell she wanted to cry. She probably lost so many family members to this battle. . The only ones who survived were no more then 20 of the real family. And the ones who survived were either to young to grasp a sword or to injure to fight. Sawdy may not of been injured but she was the only surviving female that was ready to lay eggs.

"Auntie you must not tell them anything. They are ravens can't you tell?"

" I know dusty but they are not black blood ravens"

"You don't know that. For all you know one of them could be black of blood"

It was like she knew, like she saw right through her disguise. She never knew that she was correct. No one could ever know about her secret. The secret that could kill them all if they found out. They would hate her.

" None of us are black of blood. If we were then we would have red eyes would we not"?

Nightshade stepped up. He was smiling at her. He seemed to be the least dangerous of them all now. Maybe because he was part crow himself, he just seemed to camouflage with them. He was one of them. His voice calmed her down; she could tell it also calmed down this crow. She seemed to know him.

"Shade is that you?"

Shade who was this shade. There was no shade with them. Un less, of course nightshade was shade. Hey it was short. She felt a sneer cross her face. He may call her pureness but now she could call him shady.

"Yes it is I"

"Oh shade it is wonderful to see you again. I missed you"

She was pressing her head against his chest. She felt her eyes turn red, what was this feeling she had. She just wanted to ring that little crow's neck. She was beyond mad and yet she had no idea what she was feeling.

"This is my friend dusty. Her mother and my father were cousins"

The heat fell. Cousins? That was why she was rubbing her head against his chest.

"What are you doing here? Were is your family?"

"Father came here to talk to an old friend. I came with. My father I cannot find. My family is back home in the territory."

She saw the tears in sawdies eyes. She walked over to dusty and told her the bad news. Clarity saw the tears now pass over to dusty. Her father was dead.

" You are the auntie here are you not?" asked fox

"Yes I take care of little younglings here"

She never heard of an auntie in her family. How did fox now about this.

"Yes dusty is not my niece. But I was the friend her father came to see."

They all gave a slight nod and walked away. She thought it best to leave nightshade and dusty alone. She still could not quite put her feather on what she felt when dusty was rubbing her head against nightshade.

She stopped to stare at all the young crows. They were too young and they were all crying. Some did look hurt. Others on were crying from the pain of others.

"We must be leaving soon. Tomorrow we will go. We need to go find the black blood ravens. I must find them"

Nightshade was standing right in front of her but was not looking at her. The last four words he spat out with hatred. Would he hate her to if he knew her secret?

They whereon there way again. But this time they had a new recruit. It was nightshades cousin dusty. She had to come she said. her father was dead and she needed to do go tell her mother . She was acting strong right now but every one knew deep down that she was feeling weak. Every one was feeling weak. They were at a new destination now. They were going to go bring dusty back home. This was not part of the plan. The felt a shift in the wind. It was telling her something.

"_listen……they are close…….get away now…….there talons sharp……bodies flying away…black feather falling……friends captured….secrets told……grey friend……don't go that way"_

there was more then one voice. They were all telling her something she did not whant to hear. She stared straight a few minutes. She had to tell nightshade. Flying up a bit, she cryed out as she felt talons rake her back. It was them, she saw beady red eyes staring down at her. her back was on fire. She saw her friends, they were also being attacked. She saw him. the one called pyro.his eyes were in astonishment

"you. I thought I killed you years ago. You black blood raven was suppose to die"

she watched as dusty was carried off. A flash of grey on four legs came running through. That was when she blacked out.


	8. lupin

Smell of wet dog was strong, and the pain was even stronger. She could feel the blood lightly slipping down her black feathers. Her head was pounding against her skull. She was hurting all over. The image of dusty being taken away kept playing in her head, the wind was correct. She shouldn't have gone that way. Maybe it was best if she just stayed home. If she stayed then no one would be hurt. Opening her eyes she stared into the face of a grey warrior. This grey warrior had hair all over, had a snout, and had four legs. She heard of these warriors, they were called wolves. The wolf had beautiful blue eyes and a scar that ran over its mouth.

"You have awakened?"

She could understand the wolf, this was unusual to her.

"Yes I am awake"

"Good then, you must eat. You are weak from the fight."

The wolf pushed a vole over to her. Clarity now felt the hunger pains. She has not eaten in a long time.

"Were are my friends?"

Her eyes were gloomy, as if she did not whant to tell her something. As if dusty was not the only friend taken. Looking around she saw only two black shadows sleep breathing. Where were the two, where was she?

"Where are my friends? Where am I?"

This wolf gave her a smile, she opened up her mouth and sayed

"Eat the mice, you must gain your strength"

She was changing the subject; she did not want clarity to know something. She turned her head back to the two ravens lying there. One she could tell was nightshade, the other looked just like amyth, with one purple eye open. Her eyes were staring right at her and yet she just seemed to not see her. Amyth was in bad shape, with a toe missing and her wings with so many cuts on it. She lost her soon to be mate to the black blood ravens.

"Your friend over there, the one with purple eyes. She won't make it. Her heart is broken, her spirit gone, her eyes can see no more, the things she saw while you were asleep were to much for her"

Turning her head she saw another wolf, this one a darker grey and with a gentler voice. Clarity new right away this was the thing that saved her. She walked in with grace. Her eyes tracing over clarities body.

"My name raven is lupin. I am the daughter of the leader of this pack."

She had nice green eyes, she had no scar but she was a warrior. She had a collar around her neck that was given to the passing warriors and had metal claws strapped around her real ones. Her eyes were holding pain in them. Was it for clarity or for her?

"Your name raven I do not know yet, but I may not know it for another few minutes. You are no mood to talk right now. Not because of your wounds but because of your loss. Three of your friends were taken from you. One may die soon"

Three friends were taken from her. That would mean torch, dusty, and fox were either dead or are now captured.

"Lupin you must leave. She is in no mood to speak yet. Go now lupin"

The first wolf now shoved lupin out of the den.

"She may have told you about your friends. Will they are not dead youngling, but they will soon be if you do nothing about it"

She turned around and walked away. Leaving clarity to cry over her loss.

A day passed. Amyth was holding on by a thread. Nightshade was up and walking but not flying. Clarity must have been the healthiest among them. Only with a scar on her back, and a sprained ankle she was able to fly around. She left the ground many times, going back to be the black blood ravens attacked them. She dropped down and landed on the sand. She saw blood, a lot of it. There were also scents of her three missing friends that lingered in the air. But now she was back, and her mind was drifting off too much other stuff. Like what was topaz doing? how is spirit?, is kimon alive? Were the three hostages being held? Does any one know about her secret?

She, nightshade, and amyth were not the only ravens here. There was one more, a female. She was old or at least had something bad happen to her to make her look the way she did. And yet for a raven clarity never knew in her life, she seemed offly familiar. As if she stared into those eyes once before. When she was quite young. And the only way for that to happen would be if she was a black blood raven, but she was not for she had pearl eyes. She fascinated clarity; by the way her once black feathers were now an ashy grey. How her once pretty face held the sadness from a mistake she once did. And how her once sane mind had only one thought on it. The same thing she said over and over again.

"I killed my daughter. I could have loved her; she could have stopped this war. I let him kill her. I let him take over the throne. We are doomed"

Nightshade was ignoring her, he must of thought this was all her fault. He would no longer talk to her. Opening her wings she allowed the wind to take her up. She had to go find this wolf named lupin. Over the one day of being here in this pack she figured out that it had 20 wolves in it, that they had a medicine wolf, and that they had different beliefs then ravens. Finally seeing lupin she dropped down.

"Ahh raven. I new you would come and find me"

"How did you know that?"

"The same way I know your little secret"

Her secret, lupin knew her secret.

"I don't know what you are talking about"

"Yes you do, black blood raven"

She was smiling; she was not mad nor had any hatred against clarity.

"How do you know?"

"I was there when you were hatched. I was watching. I was there when you were almost killed. I was there when your mother got attacked"

"Then you must know my mother. Were is she?"

"She is closer then you think"

Her eyes trailed to this other raven. Clarity followed her eyes. This raven looked very familiar now. She couldn't be, she wasn't. She isn't. Turning her head back around she was amazed to see that lupin had disappeared.

Every one was sad from the news they got. The other wolf, the medicine wolf sage told them that amyth passed. Now they were huddled around for her funeral. Clarity was sadder then ever, when she rescues torch she must tell him that his mate would never be. She was gone, she was no more. Torch would die as well. She felt a tear run down her cheek. She missed torch with her whole heart. He and amyth would have been awesome parents; they would be great warriors as well. Parents, I wonder how spirit is doing right now. More tears fell at the thought of being banished form her other family. Topaz would be mad when they got back. Withier or not they kill the black blood ravens. Standing right beside her, perched on the branch was the other raven. She was either murmuring to herself or talking very quietly to clarity.

" My daughter might have a funeral like this if I found her"

"What?"

This other raven turned her head, and gasped.

"You have silver eyes, you are pure of blood. But that cant happen, my daughter is dead"

"What about your daughter. I would like to know"

"She was perfect, but I never saw that. I am a black of blood raven, or was one. She hatched and she was not one of us. She had bluish silver eyes, she was pure of blood. It is known as shame in our family to give birth to a pure of blood raven. So I did what was said to be done. I let my captain kill her. He took her away and dropped her. But he said he had to do it sooner because kimon the warrior attacked him."

Kimon attacked pyro. Kimono said he only attacked pyro when he was holding her. This was her mother.

"Lets say your daughter might have been saved. Lets say she is alive. What will happen if she sets foot or wing in black blood territory? What will happen to her?"

"She might be killed. But she mustn't die. She must get back the throne, put a stop to pyro. Make him stop killing. She must become the new queen. She must stop pyro."

She heard nightshade right behind her. He heard every thing she just said. Turning around she stared into her eyes. He was angry, and had his sword out. He was going to kill her mother. Turning around she took the sword away from him. He did try to fight her a bit but she won.

"No shade, she is my mother"

He turned his gaze onto her. His eyes were full of anger towards her now. He was mad. He took off before she could talk to him.

Shade was ignoring her. Not talking to her, not looking at her. She hated it. She decided to go find him one day. Circling around over and over again. She finally sighted him.

"Nightshade. I think we need to talk"

"Your right we do need to talk. That day we first met; you were amazed at the color of your blood. You thought it was black didn't you?"

"Yes I did"

"I asked you what color you thought it was. You said blank white. You lied to me"

"I am sorry, but I thought if you knew my secret you would kill me right away."

He turned right around; he was staring at her with passion. She could not tell why he would have passion towards her.

"Clarity, I would never kill you, I would never hurt you, and I shall never stop………"

He stopped what he was going to say. He could not tell her right now. It was way to soon. Way to soon.

They would be on their way in a few. Her and her three companions. Lupin and her mother have agreed to come with her. She would go save torch, fox, and dusty. She would give torch the bad news. Her mother could tell her were they were hiding, she told them that pyro has moved to another place. She could show them were they kept their hostages. She also told them that they had more then just her friends as hostages. That was why she left them. Pyro, did not want her to commit suicide, but thought best if she dropped down from queen and gave him the title. She thought nothing of it; she thought he would make a great king. But she was wrong, when he started to get the help of the dark wolves to burn down families that disobeyed him. He would take hostages and hurt them until they told him secrets. He would pick out the eyes of hostages that told him nothing. This scared her more then ever. She knew torch would tell them nothing. Would he have his eyes picked out?

They would be on their way soon, today. She saw lupin get a quick lick from her parents. She saw nightshade staring into her eyes. And her mother, smiling because she knew she was doing the right thing. She found her mother, she found a new friend. She could here the wind talking to her

"_This clarity……………this is were your journey begins…………….this is were you will lose and win some fights……this journey will tell the future of the ravens… win this battle"_


	9. exile

Topaz gave a sigh; her eyes were searching the sky once more. She was searching for the five, clarity, fox, nightshade, torch, and amyth. But day in and day out they never came back. She knew what she had to do; every one knew what she had to do. Turning around she stared into the eyes of her new captain garnet.

"What should I do about them?"

Her eyes were full of something. It looked like hatred or maybe it was regret for what she may choose. Her gaze was staring into hers. She made her decision, even if it would hurt her friends.

"You know what you must do. If they are not back by now then they may be working for him. Why else would they leave kimono when he was close to die. If they cared they would of stayed with him. And if they did care and leave then they could be putting us in danger without knowing it, and if that does happen then you must punish them in the only way we can. You must banish them from here, never to come back. Exile, death if they come back."

"But what if they stop pyro? What then?" her question was sent to another raven. Columbine, one of clarities good friend. And a new apprentice.

"Then……………." His gaze swept to the ground. She saw a tear slide down his beak and hit the bark with a little pitter. "I can not answer that for you. If they stop pyro. Kill him, then you must decide that if they come back that you drop the exile or keep it for punishment for leaving and give them word that no other raven will hate you for what you done. Or give them a gift for stopping pyro."

She gave a slight nod towards him. He knew why he could not tell her what to do. He cared deeply for his friends. Turning so she was looking back at the sun setting she thought about what to say.

"Then so be it. If they come back then we kill them. They are in exile. They are banished from this family until I say otherwise. Now I will go check on kimon."

She made a swift turn an walked way. Columbine followed her, his eye still filled with sadness. But garnet was still standing there, now with a mischievous smirk on her face. Her eyes full of evil.

"now my love. We turned her family against her. now it is only a matter of time before we actually kill her and her little friends."

Oh bet ya you never saw that coming. Garnet working for the other side. Ohh scary.


	10. the kidnapping

Part 3: the kidnapping

Now we go back a few weeks. To when dust, torch, and fox were taken. What did they see, where are they now.

Torch was flying close to amyth. His one true love. The only raven he would want to spend his whole life with. If she were to die right now he would die with her. He turned his head around to stare at all of the ravens flying.

There was fox that was flying by the crow dusty; there was clarity and nightshade who were trying as hard as they can to stay away from one another. And then there was him and amyth.

Dusty watched as clarity tried to get to nightshade as quick as possible. As if she knew something. As if there was dangerrrr. There was a black shape that hit her right in the back. Then he felt talon lifting her up, and then a hissing voice.

"Stay still missy, or I will drop you right now"

If she was dropped she knew she would hit the ground with out any time to react. She went limp. Allowing him to take her away. While she was being carried off she watched as the other ravens were fighting not just for her safety but they're as will. She was starting to think she was going to be taken away but that was before she saw fox who just got came through the battle taking place and was coming towards her at full speed. Sword at mouth. She felt her happiness rising.

"No you stay still for here comes fox and he will kill you"

Then she heard it, one of the cruelest laughs in the world. Then his hissy voice speak again.

"if that is what you think".

Then another raven sped by. Slamming into fox. He dropped his sword. Their claws were scraping at one another. Then another raven came by. Now it was only one against two. He was being buffeted, slammed, and cut in a million places. When his last bit of strength was taken. On of the raven grabbed him by the wings and pulled him up. Trailing the other raven who just took dusty. He flapped harder and harder till he was face-to-face and wing-to-wing with this other raven.

"Hey smoke nice catch isn't it"

"Yes murky but you did not catch a male raven. I will get most of the praise."

"Yes but I got a female. We will get a lot out of her. Male are stubborn and hot-tempered. And ow."

Dusty picked at smokes leg, peeling of some of the skin. But he shook her. she watched as some of her coal feather fell to the ground. She turned her gaze at fox.

"sorry dusty I tried. I guess I am just not strong enough."

Oh I wonder what will happen next. Only I know


	11. a message from amyth

He was thrown into a dark cave like place, his head was hammering so hard. And his eyes were just starting to adjust. As torch looked around he saw both dusty and fox. They were ok but scared. As his eyes adjusted more he saw a lot more ravens, crows, rooks, and many other birds. They were also hostages like them. He could tell that they were not eating as healthy as they should be. There was some that were young but looked in such bad shape. Some were such at a bad shape that he was more then sure that they would die. He turned his gaze one way then another. There seemed to be fifty in total. Enough to make a good team. Enough to have a battle. Enough to set free. Enough to make a family. Enough to make two families. See as how many died there was probably really enough to make three families. That must mean that over thousands of different families of birds were attacked. This meant that the ravens and crows were not the only ones who felt the destruction of the black blood ravens. He he saw a owl walk right up to him.

"not every day a owl asks a raven for help. But I am now, you seem to be the most newest one to our crew, you and those other two. And you are ravens, know a lot about the black blood ravens, and must know how to build a cage like this"

"yes I am a raven and yes I know the ways of raven buildings but the black blood ravens have a total different ways. Why do you want to know this?"

"Because raven I am more then sure I speak for every bird when I say I want to get out of here. That I cannot wait to die in here, or be killed from those likes of creatures. Yes I may be taller then them, and may be stronger then most ravens, crows, and all of your other kinds but they have ways that can kill a bear warrior with only one of their kind. They have ways. We need to get out"

a little sparrow came up behind him. Even though sparrows are not big they are excellent flyers and their tactics of flying is to tire the enemy out, with all of there loops, dodging trees, and the ability to never stop.

"We all want to get out, we may be small but together we can fight. Pleas help us get out"

"Owl, sparrow. We will try. But first I must know whom I am talking to. Your names?"

a blue jay walked up, the same with a magpie, a rook, a falcon, and a robin.

The sparrow talked first

"my name is none other then speeds. I am the fastest one in my flock."

"and mine is bardy, for I am bard owl"

"and my name is cerulean, for I am blue"

"and my name is two tone, for I have two tones"

"and my name is dark, for I am like you"

" I am carnage, for that is what I leave"

"and my name is willow, for that is were I live"

"now your name ravens and crow"

"my name is torch, for I have the power of fire sight"

"my name is fox because I attacked one when I was young"

"my name is dusty because I get dusty a lot"

the greeting ended, now they learned the names of all of the birds that represented a species,. The day was done. And torch when away to think. To think about what happened. To think about why clarity tried do not find them. To think how amyth was. oh how his beautiful amyth was scared him to death. What if she….non no she could not be. He had to get out. He had to go see his friends again. Torch was planning the escape in his head.

"Torch?"

Turning around he cried in surprise. There she was, there his amyth was. Or at least her soul was there. She was like a purple light, but you could still se her shape, and her purple eyes. She was beautiful more then ever and at the same time he knew what happened. She was gone from this world.

Oh my amyth, what happened. He tried with all his might to speak but could not let out one single word.

"Torch, I lost my heart before I went away. I knew you were taken from me. I lost my heart because I knew I would die and you were not there with me. I don't blame you though."

Taking a big gulp of his spit he allowed a few words to slipp through.

"amyth….. oh amyth I love you"

"I know torch. Torch listen to me, clarity is going to come save you but not right now, she does not have enough strength yet and she has to figure something out, she has to learn something. Torch you wil not die from this, you will grow up and find someone else to love. You will be loved back. She will have as much puire in her heart as clarity will. You will find someone else."

She wa starting to disappear.

"and torch remember………"

"remember what. Amyth remember what………….."

"torch………i……..love………you"

then she was gone.


	12. speeds qiuck thinking

Amyth wasn't there, it was like a dream. Maybe it was a dream, but torch new better then that. He turned his head around to watch fox and dusty talking, they grew close. Very close. Fox of course denied it; he said he could never love a crow, but torch new better. Torch spread out his wings, he flew over to see bardy. They had to talk.

"Bardy, I think we should wait it out. Wait for a few minutes"

"Why youngling, why should we wait to die. We should leave now."

"Because I got a message from someone or something. A friend of mine will come to save us"

"Who was this message from?"

"My dead love. Her spirit came to me"

Bardys eyes were now filled with sympathy towards him.

"If a spirit did ended say this then we shall wait, but only for a week. We need to get ou…"

He had to stop; the cage door opened, and in came pyro himself. He looked over at them all.

"One of you will be picked for a wonderful thing, one of you will be a sacrifice to our god."

He could see them all cry out in dismay.

"Don't think about this as you dieing, think about this as you dieing for a great cause"

Torch watched as speeds walked up. He stared into the eyes of pyro. What was he thinking, what was he doing. Speeds eyes were now locked on torches.

"Take me for your sacrifice. I may not be of much help to them but I may be to you. I am small but I have a lot of blood."

"Ok then little sparrow I will take you. But as one final wish I will let you say goodbye to your friends"

Speeds flew with so much speed over to torch.

"Whatever it takes I will get out. I will get help."

"Speeds if you do get out, I want you to go find clarity. She is a raven like me, she is young. You will know who she is when you meet her. She has sense of pride to her, and beauty."

Speeds gave a slight nod before following pyro out. Once he was out and the cage door was closed bardy said something.

"That sparrow will never get out alive."

"Do not underestimate him bardy. He may just save us all"

As torch said this he hoped with his whole heart that the little sparrow won't let them down.


	13. speeds bravery

Speeds was following behind pyro, there was no ravens around him, no ravens holding him. It was almost as if pyro wanted speeds to take off, maybe the sacrifice is meant to take place in the air, maybe when he was trying to escape his blood would run, maybe it pyro wanted him to leave. O how wrong he was, the moment he was few feet past the cage he could see two ravens coming over to him. They were sneering at him. One of them spoke.

"you had your chance to leave little one, it would have been so much more fun if you tried to leave"

"it is never to late."

He took of before there claws even touched him. His little wings flapping as fast as they could. He was not as fast as he could be, and he knew why. He wasn't really able to fly in that small cage. He could hear and smell the two ravens behind him. They were getting closer and closer. They were faster then speeds thought. He ducked under a limb, and shot down to the ground. At the last second he pulled up, he watched as one of the ravens miscalculated and slammed into the ground. His body now in a pool of blood. Now there was only one, but of course the moment he was thinking that two more appeared out of now were. He turned to miss the claws of one. He couldn't stop, he had to get out. He promised torch that he would get away. His wings flapping now with so much speed. He did a loop de loop in the air, and then weaved his way through six trees. When he was far out of reached he turned around and just stayed there in mid air and said

"that is why my mom named me speeds."

He saw a dark shadow fly over ontop of him. He looked up to se another raven flying landing right ontop of him.

"your mom should of named you dumb"

she turned around and flew as fast as he could. he outflyed the raven, but now he had four on his tial. He closed his eyes and wished with his whole heart that he would get out of this alive.

He opened his eyes and flew upwards a ta diagonal, towards the ksy. Up in open territory. He was going to ide, he will die in a fight. He saw a limb jutting out and flew over it. He was waintg for the rvanes to come but instead there was a lfahs of purple. He turned around and saw the rvanes fall to the gorund. There was another raven sitting on the limb, she was a female, and there was apurple glow around her. She was staring at him. He watched as she just seemed to disappear. He was home free. He turned around and flew at top speed. He was alive, and now he will go find clarity.

Torch was just about to fall asleep but he was a woken when the cage door opened again. Pyro came walking in and he was angry.

"so you think that you ill just get away with it. Oh yeah let the sparrow out so he can fly away"

"what are you talking about"

"I am talking about how that little sparrow of yours flew away. I am mad, for that none of you shall get your dinner tonight. Tomorrow I will pick someone else for the sacrifice, actually I will pick two more seeing as I missed today's."

Then he walked out.

"Amazing, the little sparrow did it."

Torch felt sorry for doubting the little sparrow as he closed his eyes.


	14. windshifting

A long journey, he had no idea it would be this long just to find a stupid king and his menions. Nightshade was beyond mad. It was like clarity's mother was leading them in circles. She lead them in a due eats one day, then a total due west another. South one minute and north another. It was stupid and now more then ever he wished with his whole might that he was the one that was captured instead of aspen. If he was there he would be able to find a way out. They were all resting now, clarity off a bit. She was just standing still listening to the wind. Lupin was laying peacefully underneath them, the limbs of the trees shading her. One eye was open watching clarity with keen interest.

"may I ask what clarity is doing standing so still. Is she watching the grass grow?"

nightshade snapped back to reality. His eyes adjusted to look at this creature, at this wolf. What did she just say to him. Now both of her eyes were open, she was now staring at this crow raven, wondering what he was just thinking about.

"think about your friends were you? Wondering how they are doing?"

he closed his eyes and gave a saddened sigh. His young features aging in a moment, the whole journey taking a toll on him mentally.

"yes I was, I was wondering how they are right now. What they are up to? If they are alive?"

"don't worry little raven, she will try to save them. Don't blame her for these treacheries. It was not her fault. She was meant to go alone but you all came along"

it was as if she read his mind. Ever since her mother came along nightshade was feeling different things to clarity. He wa scataully starting to blame her for everything.

"now back to the first question what is clarity doing over there?"

his gaze curved to clarity standing as still as a statue.

"she is listening to the wind. Trying to find out if we are on the right track."

She gave s light nod before going back to laying there peacefully.nightshade did the exact same thing.

Clarity heard nothing, her mind was gone. She achieved the next stage of wind listening. It was called wind shifting. Her soul shifted in the wind. Instead of just hearing the voices talk to her, she can actually see what was going on.

She was flying through many woods, they were familiar. Her home, topaz's family. Ther was topaz. She was staring at her, actually staring at her. Then she heard a voice, a very familiar voice.

" I am just like you, have the same gift as you. Wind speaking and wind listening. Only the greatest warriors can have both. You will still need to get to your potential but this war will help it. I know all, I am sending some of my greatest warriors there, they will aid in your battle. Your friends, your family. I will also be their. We will talk about your banishment. If you win this war then, we may see"

the image changed in front of her. She saw a dense forest full of black of blood ravens. This is were she was meant to go. They were all there. They were all there for pyro. And yet she saw a crowd of maybe 20 of them talking. She could hear them.

" so she will come?"

"_yes I heard it from the mouth of one of her kind"_

"_torch?"_

"_yes torch"_

"_then she will stop him?"_

"_yes she will, and we will help her."_

"_ever since she was born many of us are now changing, shifting into new"_

"_many of us are no longer black of blood"_

"_yes yesterday mimmzle was attacked and her blood was a little lighter. Almost deep red"_

"_you know what this means. Our time is almost up"_

"_we have a choice, stay with pyro or go to our new queen"_

"_we all know we choose pure."_

Then the image changed once more. There she was in a cage like structure. She came in from a little vent. She stared at the hundreds of raven in here. And the hundreds of other birds. She saw torch, fox, and aspen. She also saw a black blood raven take torch and fox away. Then she zoomed back. Before she returned to her body, there was one last image. An imge of a little sparrow just a few metres away. She knew he was coming over to find them.

She was back, she saw her mother, nightshade, and lupin. Turning around she addressed them all.

"we have company coming. Respect him. He is not food. He looks weak like he went through a lot."

"you mean the little sparrow who just cmae into view of the trees"

some ravens, speeds was so happy. Maybe they may know about this clarity. He landed right beside them all.

"milady, I have come ehre in search of a maiden named clarity."

"will your search ahs ended. I am her"

he stared into her eyes and said a few words.

"I was sent by torch"


	15. barnis and evil within

They were being lead out now, one minute fox and torch were in the cage the next they were the ones being sacrificed for the god. Torch never saw this coming, he would surely die, yes speeds got away but in one day he would never be able to find clarity. He would never see her again. They would never be able to talk about their adventures. Two guards were leading him and fox to the fire, they were meant to be burned alive. For evil ravens the guards were handling them with care, as if they had no means to hurt them. The fire was now in view and torch saw something in it. He saw a raid, it was clarity with speeds and every one else. He saw himself flying away and then nightshade talking to one of the black blood ravens. They were talking about helping one another. There was ravens in this flock that were on their side. They were called the banded twenty.

"come on keep moving, soon enough you will be gone"

he turned his head to stair into the eyes of this raven. He winked at him with his light red eyes. Ha, this was one of the twenty.

"now my minions it is time to call for the deviled ravens barnis help, we need his magic to save this war. We need him to win. And in order to get his help we need to sacrifice three more birds. Today we sacrifice two, one for the mishap yesterday, and one today because I am mad. Now only one more to go and that would be my self."

"you would kill yourself" and he thought that power was what pyro had, but now it was not power but craziness.

"not kill, the god barnis needs a suitable body to come in contact to, I will be that body"

"you mean you will let barnis come to this world through you?"

"yes little torch, at the end of this day I will be barnis. At the end of this day your flame will go out"

" at the end of this day we will win"

torch forgot that fox was even there.

"haha, you first."

Torch watched as they lead fox to the edge of the fire.

They were at the edge of the forest now. Overlooking everything. They circled a few rounds just to make sure what they had on their wings right now.

"north of here I think I found the cage. It smells of many birds. I could smell aspen I think"

"good nightshade, queen what have you found"

"don't call me queen my name sorrow"

"ok sorrow what have you found?"

" I went to the banded ten, umm twenty tree but non of them were there"

lupin came running over to them. She was out of breath.

"I….haph….might…no why…they are not…at the tree"

"tell me please"

" it is bad clarity. They are sacrificing birds for barnis. And pyro will sacrifice his body to be the home of barnis. The two ravens he is sacrificing right now were named fox and torch. I think those were the names of your friends"


	16. the plan is put into action

The fire was just singeing foxes feathers. He was to close to the fire for comfort. They were pushing him farther in. he closed his eyes hoping that will enable him not to feel the pain. Please someone help.

It was their chance, clarity and sorrow unsheathed their swords. Clarity told nightshade to go let out the prisoners while her and her mother saved torch and fox. Lupin was also there waiting for the single to go in. clarity with sword at beak swooped down and agve the battle cry. Sorrow right at her tail.

"caw, bcaw"

torch saw her, she was right over head of him. The two ravens turned around started to fight against torch, but it was not hurt him. It was meant to only give the prisoners enough time to escape. One of the ravens through fox into the fire but at the same time through it. He landed on the other side of the pit only with smoke smelling feathers.

Swords were clinging one way and another. Torch grabbed a sword from an unsuspecting black raven and slit his throat. Clarity stuck the sword through another's heart, a trickle of blood coming out its beak. Torch lost the other raven in the midst of the battle. All ready ten ravens were on the ground dead or bleeding. Pyro didn't care who he was killing right now, he sliced the head of his captain. All this just to get towards clarity. Then pyro saw fox, he was down on the ground. He lunged out and grabbed fox.

"clarity if you wan't to see your friend alive again then stop this madness"

it did not stop. Pyro grabbed fox by the throat and was just about to throw him in the fire when sorrow came up behind him.

"you will not kill him"

she slammed pyro in the back, he let go of fox and slammed into another raven. Right before clarities eyes she watched as her mother, pyro, and another whent in the fire.

"no, mother"

she flew right over to the fire. She saw her mothers body burn away. The ashes of fire blew into the wind, and with them came a voice.

"_my daughter, it is your time now. Hurt them all. Kill them all. You must win this battle"_

"clarity we must leave now"

she turned her head to find that fox was right beside her. He heard evry thing but he still trusted her. How could he? He knew her secret. She gave a slight nod before taking off.

Torch and fox were right behind her.

Nightshade was now at the cage, there was huge a rock blocking the entrance. Try as he might he could not push it out of the way. For a legendary warrior he was not that strong. Yes he did beat many villains in his life but that was because of his cunningness. Not his strength. He pushed and pushed but with no prevail.

"lupin do you by chance think you may be able to move this rock?"

"I could try master raven but that rock ways more then I do."

"then we came this far for nothing"

"not of nothing young raven"

the voice startled him. He jumped and spinned around to face the owner of the voice. It was one of them. The black blood ravens. There were three in total, all of them as evil as the next.

"don't fear us, you may of heard of us. The banded twenty. We have came to help"

"how do I know if you are really here to help us"

"look at my eyes, they are no longer red, they are more of a brown. My companions eyes have turned blue and green. We have been hiding for we are no longer black of blood. I am one of you now"

yes now that nightshade was actually looking at them they did look a lot like him.

"how do we move this rock"

"easy you take away the slabs that are holding them in place"

the two other ravens walked over to the rock and pulled tow smaller rocks out of the way.

"now push"

it was beyond easy. With one slight tap the rock moved. Nightshade looked at the huge opening, a gust of air that smelled like birds came rushing out.

"hello is anyone in here"

he looked up as a big owl landed on top of him.

"who are you? Speak now or I will eat you and cough up your bones"

"my name is nightshade. A friend of clarity"

his claws sinking deeper into his feathers.

"Never heard of her"

"Also a friend of fox, torch, aspen, columbine, garnet, grandson of topaz, and apprentice of kimono. By any chance have you heard of them"

"I can recall the name torch, and fox"

"I am also the cousin of dusty the crow"

" we have a crow named dusty here but that proves nothing"

"Shade, oh shade is it you. Oh my it is you"

He looked up to see dusty come right on over to him.

"bardy get off of him, do you know who this is. He is nightshade"

bardy ever so lightly stepped off the raven. He starred into the eyes of this raven and bowed low to the ground .

"oh legendary nightshade forgive my accusations."

"no don't there is nothing wrong. You've been here for a long time you can't trust anyone. I have come here to save you all."


	17. resurected

Were could he be, they should leave soon and nightshade still wasn't here.

"clarity, he will be here"

she was now looking at torch, after telling him about amyth he wasn't sad. He didn't shed a tear. And she new why, he already knew.

" I know he will come but I don't wan't you to be taken away again because he can't come here right now"

" I see him, and there Is a bunch of birds right behind him. He saved them. I can see dusty"

her heart fluttered with happiness, he was alive.

Nightshade touched down and walked over to clarity, she was happy for once.

"its been a long time since I seen you smile"

"yes I know, but you are alive, torch and ofx are back, and pyro is dead"

"pyro is dead? Did you see him die?"

"yes, he fell into the fire pit, the same with my mother, but some sad effects must happen first."

He knew she was telling the truth but he just couldn't believe pyro was dead, it just seemed to simple.

Torch was staring into the sky, he was looking at the firey blaze that was the sun. he was seeing images in them. Images that scare dhim.

"torch, what did you see?"

clarity snapped him back to reality.

"nothing I can tell you right now, its to graphic"

"clarity did you know that some of the ravens are on our side"

"yes as a matter of fact I did, there is a band of twenty. That is what they are called"

" I have also meet them, they said that they will help us some how"

" there is something I been meaning to ask you?"

"ask away torch"

"how did you know were we were?"

" a little sparrow by the name of speeds"

"were is he now, can you tell me that?"

"lupin sent him in the deriction of her home, she told him to get as many wolves as he could to come over here. We will need them for the war. Won't we?"

"yes we will"

there was a smell of burnt carrion in the area, all the black blood raven were sitting by the distinguished fire pit looking at the stilled body of their leader. They knew there was something changing about him. Maybe it was the fact that he grew three sizes larger, or the fact that he had spikes coming out of his wings and heads, or maybe it was that his eyes were of black death. They all knew who he was now.

"pyro are you alright"

his cold gaze looking into the soul of this raven. All the other ravens watched as this one seemed to just burn away.

"my name is not pyro, my name is barnis and I am once again resurrected. It is my job now to rule the bird world. Who ever do not follow my word will have the same fate as him. If any one of my followers is working for the other side then they will be fed to the falcons, when they are still alive. I will rip out their eyes myself; slice of their wings so they cannot fly away, then I will rip of their beaks so they cannot eat. And after your fed to the falcons and you are still alive then I will bury you alive. So will you all follow me our would you rather be perished all right now"

"we will follow you dear barnis"

a few ravens were cowering under the weight, they were some of the banded twenty five now. They knew that if they did not leave now that they would all truly die.


	18. taking action

Columbine knew by the way topaz was living her days now that something was wrong. He wanted to so badly to talk to her. To aske her what she knows. But most of all he so badly wanted to go help clarity and the others. He had to go but he knew topaz needed them here. His heart was torn between. Kimon would never be able to be the captain again. He is just in not in good shape. And with torch, amyth, shade, and fox gone. He was the only skilled warrior left. From what he heard he may become the next captain but then their was also aspen who was also skilled. Now thinking of aspen he knew he did not wan't her to become captain. There was something about her. She was changing, he was the only one wno could see it. Her eyes gave a redish glow. It won't be long before she is one of them. He swerved his head around as garnet cmae flying in at top speed. She gracefully landed right beside. There beaks were close together as they talke about what garnet found. Columbine hid himselfs in the shadow, close enough as he could get without being seen. He had to know what they were talking about.

" what have you found out?"

"from what I gathered pyro captured as many birds as he could get"

"I knew that garnet. When I ask you to bring me something usefull I don't whant to know learn something I already know. When I send you out or anyone else at that matter I whant new information. But instead I hear you have no idea either. Is it to hard to ask for some help from my warriors. My grandson is out there and I have no idea if he was one of the captured"

never had he hear topaz yell like that before. She was always peaceful with her warriors. This must be really hard on her. Her grandson out there and she has no idea what happened to him.

" topaz there is more. It seems he was using these brids as sacrifices to barnis."

"barnis then the birds there all dead"

" while I was there I was amazed………."

"lower your voice"

" I saw shade. Ther was a lot of birds following after him. From what I saw they were the ones captured. They all got away"

"my grandson"

"yes and clarity was also there. She did battle mam and she was excellent. If she ever comes back she should be warrior"

" yes yes she should. If she comes back"

it was getting harder for him to hear now but he knew that what he heard was bnad. Bad for clarity and bad for them.

" it looked like she killed pyro but it wasn't so. He is alive but he is no longer pyro. Barnis has stepped foot on our world now nad there will be nothing that will stop him."

"barnis is here. And it took you this long to tell me this garnet. From this point and more I send troops of mine to go fight with clarity. columbine I knew you were listening, you have the right to as our new captain."

"me but what about garnet or aspen"

" garnet is a skilled fighter but I need as my spy. You on the other hand I trust you with my life. I need you to bring some of my warriors over to clarity. bring the toughest and the most skilled. With you"

" yes but what about aspen she is more skilled then me"

"yes I know but we havn't seen her in days"

he gave her a slight now before taking off. he knew exactly who he was going to bring with him. He made his way to the fir tree.

" thistle, ragweed, willow, spirit, maylee, onyx, tyrant, and fireweed I have a special mission for you all"

"what si it columbine"

" we need to go fight with clarity. she needs us"

"why, she can handle herself from what we heard"

"no she can't. barnis the raven demon has come"

" barnis if barnis has come I go to"

he knew that voice. He saw the determination in his eyes. He would have surely brought him if only if he weren't in such a bad shape. it was kimon.

"I can't let you come. You are to weak"

"I am a warrior. I have the right to come. Even if you don't let me I will still go. I warrior never dies from old age. A warrior lives to fight and a warrior dies to fight. That is our motto"

"ok you can come"

" good"

"when do we leave"

kimon stared at columbine then at the rest of the ravens before looking at columbine once more. With a nod of analodgment from columbine his voice rang out cleary as if he was once more the fine warrior and cpatain he once was.

"as soon as we get our weapons we leave"


	19. defeating the inner battle

Every one was tense for the upcoming battle. Every one knew that even though pyro was dead they still needed to end the black blood ravens. Every one knew this and that was why they chose clarity. They chose her as their captain. Bardy and torch thought she was the best choice. Even nighthsdae could not disagree with them. But it was clarity who disagreed with them all.

"nightshade I can not lead this rebellion. I can not do this"

"yes you can, you have strength that none of us have ever seen. You can lead"

"but they know nothing of me. They don't know of my black blood"

"I do and I still believe you're the one"

Looking up into his eyes she saw a loving passion. She gave him that same look hoping that they will talk about themselves for just one moment. But she saw him look away from her. She looked down, he did not have enough commitment to start a family right now.

"if you believe I can then I will lead this army"

"good, then I should go"

She didn't even hear hyim l;eave, she did not wan't to be with him at the moment. Looking up at the sky she pictured what would happen if they did happen to be together. Looking down she saw torch staring at the sky. He was looking at the sun. she could tell he was having another vision. Spreading out her wings she glided down to him.

" hi clarity, don't bother me right now"

Not even saying a single word she just gave her head a nod of acknowledgement. Once torch was finished he turned his head around and looked at her.

"you have grown into a fine raven clarity, we all have strength and faith in you . we know you will lead us to victory. Even if the victory may leave most of us dead. I will follow you till I die myself"

"what have you seen torch, have you seen our deaths. Are we going to die in this war"

"no I did not see our deaths during the war."

"what did you see"

" I saw a dark night, it was raining and there was one tree. A fir tree. It was your tree. You were flying there with a look of urgencie. You knew something bad was happening. You flapped down to the tree and then I saw ravenletts. They were yours and nightshades. But then I saw something else. You were gone all of the sudden and there was another raven, he was not any one I have ever seen before. He looked far older and wiser then any raven I saw before."

" I had kids with nightshade"

"yes clarity you did"

" thank you torch"

Then with that she turned around and flapped away.

" your welcome"

He knew it was best to tell her but he knew he regretted it. He knew he wanted clarity to find someone better then nightshade to cuddle up close with.

Looking over the horizon he saw what looked like bl;ack dots in the sky. Hmm the black bloods are out right now. But they were coming closer and closer. There armor was of a different color. He knew that armor. He knew that maneuver of flying. They were coming closer. It was columbine and their friends.

" clarity do you see that"

He took that as being foxes voice.

"yes fox I see them"

The ten ravens landed gracefully donw righit beside torch.

"columbine do my eyes deceive me or is that the captains sword"

"it is torch, I am the new captain torch."

"kimon, kimon it is so nice to see you again"

Clarity flew right down nad rubbed her head against kimons grey chest.

" ahh clarity I heard great things about you. You shall be a great warrior"

"yes you shall"

" spirit you are here to. Oh I missed you both"

"clarity we have bead news. Pyor has become barnis"


	20. torch the wizard?

So it has happened, clarity was wrong. Her mother never killed pyro but instead she helped let barnis come into the world. Her own mother was a big part of the plan but she never even knew. Clarity and the toher were more ready then ever, but they all knew they had to wait. There would be a better chance in big numbers. they only had 300 hundred now. Yes it was good, but up against the 5000 on barnisis side it was death. So they had to wait. They had to wait for speeds to gather more sparrows. they had to wait for more wolves, and they just had to wait for more of a chance. She gave them each jobs. Nightshade and fox were to patrol the new camp grounds. Lupin was given the job to find four legged cratures to help. The new recruits were meant to teach the other brids of their fighting skill and vice versa. And then there was torch. Clarity had nothing to give torch at the moment. She let it be up to him. So that was how torch relized he was a wizard of sorts. It was just a normal day, will as normal asit would get in these circumstances. This was the only hour that every obne had off. For once torch actually took his break off as well. He decided it may best to fly around for a bit. He flew over the treetops. He loved to feel the wind underneath his wings. For once everything felt right. There was no battle, there was no barnis , everything was just fine. The only thing that would make this better is if amyth was here flying with him.

"I am here with you…my torch"

He could feel her wings right beside himn. They were together once again. Even if it was just for one moment .

"oh amyth I missed you"

"I know torch. Torch I think I may have found away that you could help"

He flew down to a fir tree and looked at amyth. She was a ghost he knew that but she was also different from a ghost. She was transparent but all around her was an eirrie purple glow.

"what is it. How could I help"

"how would you like to learn some magic"

"magic?"

"yes you know magic. Play with fire, puffs of blue dust. Words that make no sense"

"how could I learn magic. I know no one who knows such stuff"

"torch I am a spirit. I have learnt magic to become what I am. I can teach you enough for now. In time though you will learn more. One day who knows you my become a wizard of sorts."


	21. allies from the inside

Clarity new something was up with torch, for the last week he would leave for hours on end, no one knew were he wen't, no one knew what he was doing. Every time he came back though his feather were dusty, his beak was covered wit mud, and he seemed more stronger then the day before. Clarity on the other hand was still thinking and plotting, she had no idea how to defeat barnis, the master of all evil.

Banded ravens were growing in numbers ever day, now they were up to 40 in this little circle of theirs. Though they were sure there was a lot more ravens gainst what barnis was doing. They knew it would be easier to get out now then later. Barnis was sure there was some plotting from the inside and right now he suspected a few of them. He would stair at them with his huge big eyes. Every single time he looked at any one of them they were sure he was peering into their souls. So tonight when the moon was gone they would al escape and fly to clarity. They new what side they were on now. The new were they belonged.

Rocky the leader of the banded………… well what ever it was called now, acted as if he was barnis lead man. He always stayed by his side. It was to thorw him of guard, to make it seem like they was no one going behind his back. but barnis seemed to know. He even told rocky once.

"keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer"

barnis was talking about him.

Today barnis was having meeting and he wanted every one there. he needed to talk to all of them. All of the blackbloods and all of the banded forty were there as well. Barnis came out of his den, the cave that was used to hold captives only a week before. He flew to the highledge and observed all the ravens. His eyes would linger on those that were part of the banded forty. He knew. He cleared his voice then addressed all of his allys

"I am grateful for all of your help. But I have been suspecting that a few of you are plotting against me. Now after watching those few I have a feeling I was right all along. Now I have no idea who else is part of their society and am giving all of them a second chance. You can all stay and take me as your king, or you could step up right now and let us kill you. So what is your decesion"

he was waiting, waiting for a answer, waiting for the accused to come out. Rocky looked around thinking that they well stand up and say that they are either against him or with him, but he was amzed when not one even made a gesture of changing there leaders. Barnis was suddenly furios.

" so you will not be comenig up. You well still follow that btich clarity. If that the case then I will have to go to plan b. rocky because you seem so keen to please me I want you to kill the rvane sitting right beside you."

Rocky turned his gaze to see that both the ravens were part of the banded forty. He saw both flame and seara look at him. They did not wan't to die.

"I can not do that my lord. I can not kill my fellow comrades"

"well then you disapooint me rocky. Ok then dark I give you permission to kill all three of them"

rocky new that dark was not part of the baned forty. He was coming closer to all three of them. Rocky saw the look of fear on all of his other friends. Dark was only a foot away when he drew his sword. He suddenly swiped the sword in a move that would cut all their heads off at once. But rocky would not let that happened with swiftness o9f his wing his sword met his in a clash. Then his voice rang out

"the banded forty your time is now. Leave and go to clarity"

more then forty ravens took off. But now the ones who were still on barnises side were attacking them in mid air. Rockt pushed dark away and flew to one of his comrades sides. He drove the sword deeply into the chest of the raven and watched as the life drained from his eyes. He flew as fast he could. He watched as one of the banded fell to that of a black blood. A lot of his friends were dieisng, but a lot more were getting away. A lot more were home free. Although a lot were far away most of them were still in danger dodging the attacks of the other ravens or fighting them with their handy skills. He knew that not all of them would survive. He was almost home free when he saw barnis right in front of him. He didn't have time to react when his head was cut clean off. The last thing he saw for that one split second was that only ten of the so many that escaped wer left over.

Clarity was fast asleep, the night was upon them and for once they felt safe because it was pitch black. She was having a wonderful dream, then she woke up. The wind was all around her, buffeting her. It was trying to tell her something.

"ok, ok I am awake what do you want"

_you must come with us. ……..there….is something we want you to see. _

Then her soul was being lefted from her body she found herself floating away. It took her a minute before she relized that they were back at barnises ground. She watched as a meeting was being taken place. And then she saw as her friends from the inside suddenly took there escape.

They… are on there…..way…..they have done the right thing…..to……leave

Then she was ebing moved again. Now she found herself looking at speeds. He had thousands of the little birds following him. Then she saw lupin and many other four footed warriors following her. She saw bear warriors, cougars, skunks, hedgehogs, and so much more. she saw every single animal that you could think of

The time has come clarity…… the battle is soon to begin. Tomorrow you leave and you defeat them. And I shall be there

Most of the other times the wind talked to her she could hear voices but never make out who they belonged to. But now she recognized that voice. It was topazes. She was brought back to her body, and the first thing she did was wake up all of her friends.

"wake up, we have to get ready. At dawn we attack"


	22. the battle begins

The day was among them, by the time clarity had woke every one speeds and lupins team made sfaley to the hideout. Right behind them was those that escaped barnises place. Some were injured but not dead. Most of them were able to fight. Clarity was sure that with this surprise attack that barnis would not be ready. Another thing that was on their side was the fact that they were just in a battle so it would be easier for clarities team to defeat them. Everyone had there swords at hand, or there metal claws. Every one had a specific task. The bears, cougars, and wolves would take care of the black wolves that were on the barnises side. The skunks and hedgehogs were to attack the ravens that cmae to land on the gorund. While the rest of them would fight in the sky. The sparrows main objective was to tire the ravens out so it would be easier for them to take down. Nighthsade was meant to take down the stronger ravens. The eagles and owls would take more then one raven at a time. This was all meant to disract the ravens from the fact that clarity was to go after barnis herself. She was the only one who could defeat him, it was what she was.

They were already to leave when she saw in the horizon what looked like one solitary raven.

"fox come here"

fox flew in as clarity called his name. He could see the raven to and wondered what could be up.

"what do you think of that"

"do you suppose that it could be one of the escapes from barnis"

"no the raven looks vagualey familiar, it can't be. Its topaz"

very one who was in ear sight came hopping over.

"topaz you say it can't be"

well sure enough it was. Topaz laned right beside clarity. She was clad in warriors armor. she looked happy and yet for once clarity thought she looked really old. Her feathers were so dull and not the bright blackness it was before. Her eyes looked like they whent through a great deal of pain.

"ahh columbine its been long. I hope you have been helping these ravenletts as best as you could."

"of course my lordress, but I have got to that they are not ravenletts anymore. They have all grown in size and there sword handling has grown as well. They shall become great warriors"

kimon walked forward and looked at his queen.

"my lady they would make fine warriors to your family, but as I recall did you not exile them"

their was glent of mischievous in his eyes. Topaz saw it to, he was tricking her at her own game

" a kimon although you have lost many things when you were attacked, you have never lost your trickyness"

then her eyes moved to look at the three ravens and crow who were part of the journey the whole way

"torch, fox, nightshade, and dusty you have done great on this journey. Dusty although you are not the strongest fighter here you will still make a good part of our team. Torch from what I heard of certain rave girl you have been learning some magic"

"yes my lady I have. So you know to about amyth"

"yes torch it's a sad thing to behold. You two would have been perfect together. Fox you have become a great warrior and you have the makings of being a great father. Don't let the fact that the one you love is not your kind get in your way of happiness"

fox looked at her with surprise in his eyes then he turned his gaze at dusty. There eyes met and he knew at that moment from the first time he tried, to save her life that they were meant to be mates

" and you shade, it is wonderful to know that my only grandson had uphold his legendary rank once more. although I think that someone may just become more legendary then yourself"

clarity knew she must of did something wrong. Topaz was looking at talking to everyone but herself. She was starting to feel that everything she did was not good because she was a black blood. She was to busy caught up in her thought that she didn't even see that clarity was now only looking at her

"clarity?"

"oh yes"

"you have grown, you are not the little ravenlett that left this place looking for adventure. Now you are strong and proud, you have the instic of a mother raven protecting her chicks. You could not leave all those animals trapped in the cave, the reason why you freed them wasn't because your friends wer in there, no it was because it was in your heart to do so. You always think before you act, and speak your mind freely. These are great aspects of being a leader. I feel like you may become a leader sooner then you think."

Every one stopped and staired right at her. Everyone looked surprised. They had no idea what she was thinking but they were all afraid because they had a idea and they did not wan't it to be true. The only one who looked calm and cool was none other then torch.

"yes my fellow friends. I fear that this will be my last battle. Oh but don't fear I am getting old anyways and would die soon . I felt like it was my duty not to die old but to die doing the thing I loved. Protecting all of you"

kimon stepped up.

"you can't say that. You have no idea what is going to happen in this battle."

"your right kimon I don't know of my future but I know someone who does. Aint that right torch"

clarity new all along that torch was hding something. The day she asked him what he saw and all he replied with was that it was to graphic to talk about. He saw topaz dieing admist the black bloods

"yes my lady. I saw your death."

"well then now that it is settled I think there is battle that is needed to be one"

veryone was now back to topic, they were all ready. Now they were all looking at clarity. They were waiting for her to give the single.

" if you are ready good, if not then do so. We leave right now"

she watched as they all took of. The flapping of the wings of every single bird was make a great racket. The four footed animals were all running, clarity could only make out the occasional body through all the thick grass but she knew they were there.

topaz cmae right up to her and whispered in her ear

"like I said, I was coming to help"

"what do you mean?"

the wind was picking up and then she heard a certain voice

what do you think I mean……….. you just now, to your comrades……….that is what a true leader speaks like. You well defeat barnis I can see it.

Then she was gone. It was only clarity standing on the tree. She was meant o leave after the rest of them. That was the plane to make sure that by the time she got there. the battle would be admist and it would be easier for her to get to barnis. She was so scared, and so against herself that she had no idea if this would work. Nightshade was watching her for some time. He had to talk to her alone, he needed to know what she was thinking about. He needed to let her know once and for all. He walked out form his hiding place, he was just about to speak to her when she spoke first

"shouldn't you be out helping"

"I will go out as soon as I have done talking to you"

she looked at him and for once he saw that they wer full of determenation. Those were not the same eyes he fell in love with. This was not the same raven. This rave was more beautiful then the one before.

"well what do you want to talk to me about"

"about what topaz said. About how she said you were become more legendary then me, and about you becoming a great leader"

"what you think that you would make a better leader"

"no not at all. I think she was right. You are perfect for the position. You have all the making of a great leader. You have grown into a fine warrior, you have grown more wise, and there would ne no other raven that any of us would follow except for you. You well be the one to guide us to a safer place. Youe are the one"

"is there anything else"

"yes there is. Although there would be no other raven I would follow. You are also the only raven I could ever…..love. "

clarity stared into his eyes. The one word she was hoping to hear for such a long time just cma eout of his mouth.

"oh nightshade. I don't know what to say"

" you don't need to say anything for I know you feel the same way. I would take you right now but there is battle that needs to be won. "

she watched her new beoved mate walk to the edge of the branch\

"oh and clarity you better not die on me, although you are good fighter you well never be as good as me"

clarity smiled as she watched him fly away.

She elft up her head and screamed

"the battle begins today barnis. I will take you down"


End file.
